Linux App Finder - kdehttp://linuxappfinder.com/taxonomy/term/50/0
enThe Easy Way to Wirelessly Transfer Files Between an Android Phone and KDEhttp://linuxappfinder.com/blog/the_easy_way_to_wirelessly_transfer_files_between_an_android_phone_and_kde
<p>I recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S (the Captivate version) and I naturally wanted to be able to transfer files between it and my Linux desktop. I'm using KDE 4.5 on Kubuntu 10.04, but there are probably ways to do this using Gnome as well.</p>
<p>Initially I used a USB cable and configured the phone as a Mass Storage Device, but then I got to thinking that there had to be a way to use WiFi instead. Especially since I didn't keep a compatible USB cable at my main computer. After a little searching I came a across a great app called SwiFTP.</p>
<p>SwiFTP is a nifty FTP server that's very easy to use, but will need some basic setup the first time you use it. There is a prominent Setup button and pressing it allows you to enter a username and password. Do that, press Save, and you'll go back to the main page. Touch Start and you're in business. You'll see a WiFi URL listed that you'll need for the next step.</p>
<p>Moving to your KDE desktop, load Dolphin and type "ftp://" followed by the WiFi address found in the step above. Enter the username and password when prompted. Now you can use your phone just like any other drive on your computer and easily drag and drop files within Dolphin. And by right-clicking the folder and saving it to Places you'll always have a link in the left sidebar.</p>
<p>The final configuration step depends upon your router. If your's allows a device to be assigned the same IP address every time it's a great way to make sure you don't have to make any adjustments next time you connect.</p>
<p>When you're done transferring files press Stop in the SwiFTP app on your phone and everything goes back to how it was with no security holes.</p>
http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/the_easy_way_to_wirelessly_transfer_files_between_an_android_phone_and_kde#commentandroidBlogskdewirelessWed, 08 Sep 2010 12:05:40 -0700chadm823 at http://linuxappfinder.comKDE4 Desktop Effectshttp://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde4_desktop_effects
<p>I installed KDE4 on my desktop today so I could finally try out KWin in all its glory. If you haven't tried it yet I highly recommend it. KDE4 with desktop effects enabled is simply gorgeous. It's fast, responsive, and comes with a nice array of effects options.</p>
<p>Dim Inactive is one of the first effects that I enabled and I really like it so far. One of my pet peeves with Oxygen is that it doesn't change the color of a window's title bar to show which is active, but with Dim Inactive enabled this no longer matters. Instead of changing the title bar the windows in the background are darkened to create a clear contrast that makes it easier to focus on the foreground window.</p>
<p>Zoom is enabled by default and essentially takes one of my favorite features in Opera and applies it to the entire desktop. If you have ever wishing you could see something on your screen more clearly then this feature is one you'll enjoy. I did have to change the key board shortcuts though because I couldn't figure out what the meta key referred to. I replaced it with Alt and everything works fine.</p>
<p>Present Windows is another effect that is enabled by default. Simply flick your cursor into the top left corner and it actives an Expose like effect that lays out all of your windows side by side. But these are no static images, each window still updates in real-time if there is any activity like a progress bar, animation, and page loading. Very cool.</p>
<p>Box Switch is an improved Alt-Tab switcher that shows a thumbnail and title for each open window. The switch is lightning fast and shows none of the slight lag I experienced with the standard 2D version.</p>
<p>These are but a few of the available effects and I'm sure the authors will come up with more in the future. If you are looking to give KDE4 a try I highly recommend turning desktop effects on and see how they work for you. The only problem I've experienced is a slight shift in the taskbar that leaves some of the background exposed and a similar shift when <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/katapult">Katapult</a> is activated.</p>
<p>If any of you are running with desktop effects enabled on a laptop I would love to know if you've noticed an impact to your battery life. That's been one of the major knocks on Vista, but I haven't heard much about whether KWin (or Compiz for that matter) suffer from the same problem.</p>
http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde4_desktop_effects#commentBlogskdekwinWed, 05 Mar 2008 20:58:18 -0800chadm670 at http://linuxappfinder.comGetting Excited About KDE4http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/getting_excited_about_kde4
<p>A year ago I was really excited about KDE4, but the lack of some basic features I found whenever I tried a release candidate soured me a bit. I still loved the vision, it was just that it was hard to maintain excitement for an extended period of time. As a result, I tried the final release, discovered some of the same deficiencies, and went back to KDE3.</p>
<p>When the February update showed up in Kubuntu I decided to give it another go. Certain aspects still frustrated me: like the inability to reposition icons in the toolbar and the inability to add a folder to Places in <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/dolphin">Dolphin</a>. Eventually I decided that I could live with the icon location for now and started spending more time playing with KDE4.</p>
<p>Now I'm happy that I did. Despite KDE4 still having a ways to go before being complete and polished, I love using it.<!--break--></p>
<p><strong>Dolphin</strong></p>
<p>In the beginning I used the KDE3 version of Dolphin from within KDE4, but I was still wanting to get to some of the new Dolphin features. It was while looking through the bug reports that I discovered right-clicking on the folder I wanted did work (I had previously tried dragging a remote folder). And with that, all of a sudden one of my major pains in KDE4 was solved. It may seem like a minor issue, but much of my work in Dolphin is through smb:/ and fish:/ and those long paths are a pain to reproduce every time.</p>
<p>Overall I find Dolphin to be a joy to use. Splitting the screen is easy and it evenly divides the available space (unlike KDE3), it looks great (thanks to Oxygen), supports tagging, and it's fast! You may have heard about KDE4's improved performance and reduced memory footprint, but regardless of the reason, I definitely notice a difference. I'm running Kubuntu in a virtual machine on top of a laptop with only 1GB of RAM and running Windows. Because of this my memory is at a premium and disk accesses are painful. KDE4 has made it much easier to switch to Kubuntu without waiting forever while my hard drive finishes thrashing.</p>
<p>One feature I am looking forward to in the 4.1 release of Dolphin is integrated <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/strigi">Strigi</a> search. For me that's the biggest feature that's still missing. Although minor quibles like switching focus to the terminal when loading is by pressing F4 would be nice. I did discover that a Tab after F4 will do it, but it seems like an unnecessary step.</p>
<p><strong>KWrite</strong></p>
<p>In developing and updating the backend for Linux App Finder I do a lot of scripting and despite <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/kate">Kate</a> being available, I find that <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/kwrite">KWrite</a> does everything I need. It's nice that KWrite plays a more prevalent role in KDE4, although Kate is still available for those who prefer it. One of the nice improvements comes from the new find implementation. Instead of the dialog in the middle of the screen a bar appears across the bottom to it doesn't obstruct any of the text that you are searching through.</p>
<p><strong>Plasma</strong></p>
<p>Plasma is one of the most celebrated and most maligned aspects of KDE4, and for good reason. Much of the functionality that could be found in Kicker is still missing and there are bugs, but that's only part of the story. Plasma is meant to be so much more than a Kicker replacement and the foundation is already apparent. </p>
<p>I've always been somewhat mixed on the benefits of desktop widgets, but that's starting to change. With two young boys it's nice to have pictures around and the Picture Frame widget is great. You can create any number of them on your desktop and point them to either a single picture or a folder for a slideshow. And like everything else in KDE4, they can be resized and scale perfectly. My only wish item for the Picture Frame right now is picking the photos at random for the slideshow.</p>
<p>The total number of widgets in KDE4 right now is pretty sparse, but that will grow over time, and I've read that Mac OS X Dashboard widgets will be supported in the future which should greatly enhance the selection. Once feature addition I'd like to see is the ability to assign widgets to specific virtual desktops rather than having them applied to all.</p>
<p>I briefly mentioned scaling widgets above, but it's something that shouldn't be overlooked. One of the strengths of KDE4 is its use of SVG (scalable vector graphics) for the icons which allow clear, crisp artwork at any resolution. Because of this I can envision Plasma being a great solution for many interface types. A touch screen interface seems like it could be easily designed in Plasma and used on multiple screen sizes from phones to laptops. The scalabilty of each item in the interface could make it happen.</p>
<p><strong>Application Menu</strong></p>
<p>KDE4 replaces the old cascading menu with Kickoff. SuSE users are already familiar with it, but Kickoff is a new addition for the rest of it. It's not perfect and can take a little getting used to, but it's definitely an improvement. Adding Favorites and search was long over due. I would like to see something done about the Leave menu though. I don't understand why I have to explicitly select Logout only to have a dialog pop up in the middle of the screen with new options rather than a confirmation. This behavior makes it so it doesn't matter what menu item is selected because the real choice comes later.</p>
<p><strong>KWin</strong></p>
<p>KWin's most user noticable new feature is support for Desktop Effects. The list of new features and optional plug-ins looks pretty cool, unfortunately I haven't been able to try it yet because hardware acceleration can't be done from a virtual machine yet. Once I get it installed natively on another machine I'll definitely give it a try.</p>
<p><strong>Krdc</strong></p>
<p>Because I do a lot of work from a laptop I sometimes find myself in need to directly accessing my desktop as well. VNC tends to be my protocol of choice because it allows me to connect to an existing login, and in KDE that means <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/krdc">Krdc</a>. The KDE3 version worked, but left a lot to be desired. Fortunately Krdc has seen some love an is reborn with KDE4. It now features a tabbed interface, bookmarks, and a cleaner overall design. My two small nits are the window doesn't seem to retain its size between uses and the show local cursor selection isn't maintained between sessions so I have to reenable it every time.</p>
<p><strong>Summary</strong></p>
<p>Despite the growing pains, I'm really excited about KDE4's future and can't wait for Plasma to continue to add features and more of the apps to catch up. <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/amarok">Amarok</a> (still in pre-alpha), <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/adept">Adept</a>, <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/katapult">Katapult</a>, <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/quanta">Quanta</a>, <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/k3b">K3b</a>, <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/basket">Basket</a>, <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/knetworkmanager">KNetworkManager</a>, Network Settings, and <a href="http://linuxappfinder.com/package/kde-guidance">KDE Guidance</a> are the ones I'm looking forward to the most, but the great news is that the KDE3 versions are still fully useable in KDE4 so there's not reason to hold back while waiting.</p>
http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/getting_excited_about_kde4#commentBlogskdeFri, 29 Feb 2008 13:29:19 -0800chadm669 at http://linuxappfinder.comWhy Dolphin is a Good Choice for KDE4http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/why_dolphin_is_a_good_choice_for_kde4
<p>I've always been a big fan of <A href="/package/konqueror">Konqueror</A> so when I heard that <A href="/package/dolphin">Dolphin</A> was going to be the new default file manager for KDE4 I was disappointed. But after researching the decision further and actually giving Dolphin a try, I'm a convert.<!--break--></p>
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<p>One thing I had to think about is why I like Konqueror, and the biggest reason isn't Konqueror itself, but its integration with KIO Slaves and its flexibility. Fortunately Dolphin maintains much of that while actually being more efficient and focused than Konqueror.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong></p>
<p>Some of my favorite features are simple ones. The toolbar makes it very easy to switch between views, and even better, switching between split views and a single page couldn't be easier.</p>
<p>Compatibility with Konqueror context menu entries is also a plus. To prevent an overwhelming number of items Dolphin doesn't use the same location as Konqueror to store its context menu definitions, but it's easy to copy any Konqueror entry to the appropriate Dolphin location with no code modification being necessary.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="/screenshot/dolphin1.jpg"><img src="/screenshots/dolphin1-thumb.jpg" /></a></div>
<p><strong>Future Plans</strong></p>
<p>Everything's not perfect, but fortunately some of the screenshots I've seen for KDE 4 add features that look to address some of my wants. The current left side sidebar has a drop-down to switch between bookmarks and information. In the future IInformation will get split off to a second panel on the right, which is nice because it shows bigger document previews and actions that can be accessed without needing to right-click a file.</p>
<p>Another sidebar addition is a tree view. While it probably won't be the default, there are definitely cases where having one is useful.</p>
<p>It also looks like each of the sidebar views can be closed individually to add even more flexibility. It will be interesting to see what else the developers have in store for us.</p>
<p>Search integration is supposed to be another new addition. I haven't seen how the implementation works, but it's something I am definitely looking forward to. The current version of Dolphin has a Filter bar that can be enabled, but it only works for file names in the current directory and does not search within a file.</p>
<p><strong>Feature Requests</strong></p>
<p>A link to Konqueror's File Association configuration through the Settings menu is a must have. Most of the time I think of changing file associations when using Dolphin so having a convenient way to change them would be a big time saver.</p>
<p>An additional preview size between the top two available options would be helpful to. On my screen I each have a thumbnail preview that's too big or too small.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>Dolphin shows a lot of potential and does a great job focusing on some of the file manager useability that Konqueror lacks. I'm really looking forward to its future releases. If search can get implemented properly it will be a significant boon to useability.</p>
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http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/why_dolphin_is_a_good_choice_for_kde4#commentBlogsdolphinkdekonquerorFri, 11 May 2007 13:21:54 -0700chadm609 at http://linuxappfinder.comKDE Configuration Discrepancieshttp://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde_configuration_discrepancies
<p>I've taken to writing down usability issues as I find them and found myself wondering if others are annoyed by this one. When I open an app using kdesu it doesn't use my personal settings, it uses the root settings. While I can change those by executing "kdesu systemsettings" in the Run dialog, how many new users will know to do that? And if there are multiple users on a system, one set of settings gets applied to everyone with root access even though they may prefer different styles.<!--break--></p>
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<p>If you never change the default settings then you won't run into this issue, but it you are like me and change to a different style then it becomes readily apparent.</p>
<p>I called out KDE specifically because that is what I use. I assume other desktop environments have the same issue, but I have not tested for it.</p>
<p><strong>My Suggestion</strong></p>
<p>We need to change the behavior so the root configuration settings only apply when a user is logged in as root, which hopefully doesn't happen often. When I use sudo or kdesu to gain root privilege I should still be using my own configuration choices.</p>
<p>Hopefully issues like this that affect the consistency of the user experience will be fixed. For now I'll continue to manually adjust it.</p>
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http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde_configuration_discrepancies#commentBlogskdeSun, 04 Mar 2007 20:32:25 -0800chadm589 at http://linuxappfinder.comGtk and Qt Preferenceshttp://linuxappfinder.com/blog/gtk_and_qt_preferences
<p>In December I posted a <a href="/poll/gtk_or_qt">poll</a> asking visitors to vote based on their desktop environment and graphical toolkit preferences. While there were many votes in each category, the most noteworthy is that nearly 60% of respondents care if either Gtk or Qt is being used. The data is interesting because it highlights some of the progress that still needs to be made so all Linux software can work equally well no matter what desktop environment is being used.<!--break--></p>
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<p>Of the 558 users who voted, 48% use KDE, 45% use GNOME, and 7% use a different environment.</p>
<p>Among the KDE users, it was fairly close between those would don't care which graphics toolkit is used and those that prefer Qt, but will use Gtk. Voters who only use Qt based apps were a distant third.</p>
<p>Among the GNOME users, the largest percentage didn't care which toolkit was used. The number of users who only use Gtk based apps was only slightly behind those who prefer Gtk, but will use Qt.</p>
<p>When comparing the trends between KDE and GNOME some interesting data points can be found.</p>
<p>44% of KDE and 44% of GNOME users don't care about the underlying graphical toolkit.</p>
<p>The differences start to appear when looking at those users who do care. 41% of KDE users prefer Qt, but will ultimately use Gtk based apps, while only 31% of GNOME users prefer Gtk, but will still use Qt. A larger percentage, 25%, of GNOME users will only use Gtk, vs. 15% of KDE users who only use Qt.</p>
<p>What does all of this mean? I look at it two ways. First, that there is a difference in behavior between GNOME and KDE users, but only among an equal percentage that care about the underlying graphics toolkits. I'm leaving the realm of data now and moving to speculation, but it does make some sense. GNOME seems to have more of a desire for everything to fit together in a certain way and some purists don't want to deviate from that. Others just don't want the bloat of the extra libraries. For KDE users some additional flexibility is needed because some of the most prevalent GNU/Linux apps like <a href="/package/gimp">the GIMP</a> and <a href="/package/firefox">Firefox</a> don't use Qt.</p>
<p>The second way I read the data is that we still have a long way to go with respect to Linux application development. Not only are we competing with apps on Windows and OS X for user and developer attention, we are competing amongst ourselves. The only people who should really care about Gtk, Qt, or any other toolkit, are the developers. Unfortunately, their difference in appearance forces us, as users, to notice them.</p>
<p>Efforts such as the <a href="/package/gtk2-engines-gtk-qt">Gtk-Qt Theme Engine</a> for KDE do a good job at masking the differences, but they aren't perfect. For example, I set my buttons to only show the word OK and not the icon as well. This setting doesn't get transferred to the Gtk apps. A bigger one is the File dialog where we do all of our opening and saving. KDE and GNOME do things differently so a Gtk app in KDE still uses the GNOME dialog. This is inconsistent and can be confusing to new users.</p>
<p>Hopefully collaborative efforts such as the Portland project and other communication between developers can improve the situation, but for now, checking which toolkit a program uses will be something that many of us do.</p>
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http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/gtk_and_qt_preferences#commentBlogsgnomegtkkdeqtFri, 05 Jan 2007 22:03:23 -0800chadm562 at http://linuxappfinder.comKDE and GNOMEhttp://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde_and_gnome
<p>I was recently reading Irfan's <a href="http://irfanhabib.wordpress.com/2006/10/15/23/">Happy birthday KDE!</a> post and it got me thinking a lot about my own reasons for using KDE instead of GNOME. Since I have this blog and I decided to capture my thoughts here.</p>
<p>I have been using KDE since the 3.2 release with Keramik as my theme of choice. I recently tried GNOME again through Ubuntu 6.06 (dapper) and initially found it to be set up very well. One of the reasons is that I like how the menu entries are listed much better in GNOME than KDE. This stems more from a philosophy difference in how the menu entries (.desktop files) are created. GNOME apps tend to be like Synaptic where the name is actually listed as Synaptic Package Manager. As a result of this GNOME just lists the Name field in its default menus. KDE tends to break up the name between the Name and Generic Name fields.<!--break--></p>
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<p>One problem this causes in KDE is that I am either stuck with a bunch of apps identified only as Krdc, Kopete, Kooka, Krfb, KSysGuard, etc.; or I have any GNOME apps listed as GIMP Image Editor (Image Editor), Synaptic Package Manager (Package Manager), etc. The duplicate description is very annoying and I have to turn it off. Even the KDE display of its own apps is annoying. Why not list Kopete as Kopete Instant Messenger instead of Kopete (Instant Messenger)? Maybe others don't have the same problem, but a long list of apps in a menu just looks like giberish to me with all of those parentheses. If every app were to list one descriptive name (i.e. Kooka Scan &amp; OCR Program) that it should be displayed as, then determining what a program does at a glance would be very simple and consistent.</p>
<p>From that rant you might wonder why I didn't stick with GNOME. I tried, but over time I just became more frustrated with the appearance and usability, particularly with the number of steps to complete simple actions. I also find GNOME's interface to be ugly. That's a personal opinion and I've heard a lot of people state the opposite, but the buttons and how everything is drawn looks so drab and depressing I just couldn't take it anymore. To me this is a Gtk theme problem. Fortunately I can use Gtk based apps in KDE and the gtk2-engines-gtk-qt package will theme them like my Qt based apps. As a result I don't have to worry which toolkit a program was written with, I can just use it.</p>
<p>I mentioned usability problems in GNOME so I should explain what I meant. The problem is really that GNOME doesn't have Konqueror and KIO Slaves. I won't describe them here since I have <a href="/blog/konqueror_your_desktop_with_kioslaves">blogged</a> on both before. I don't use Konqueror as a web browser, but I do use it for most of my day-to-day file management. This includes FTP and Samba shares. While using Nautilus it seemed like every action I made took at least a couple more clicks than in KDE. I also wasn't able to customize GNOME as easily, and while KDE required a little more love to get set up how I personally like it, I've been much happier over the long run.</p>
<p>That's it in a nutshell. The are easily tons of for and against arguments between KDE and GNOME, but those few items are the ones that drove my decision. For me the most important factor in making Linux a great desktop OS isn't which desktop environment is being used, but what applications are available. Some people have stated that Linux users should all get behind either KDE or GNOME and that we should focus on a few key apps to better complete with Microsoft. I believe that the variety of choices available with Linux is the key strength that makes it worth using instead of Windows. Creativity needs to follow inspiration and that should be encouraged. What we really need is for applications to run equally well on any desktop environment so that one choice doesn't limit others.</p>
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http://linuxappfinder.com/blog/kde_and_gnome#commentBlogsgnomekdeTue, 17 Oct 2006 20:44:38 -0700chadm525 at http://linuxappfinder.com